


This Tired Old Machine is A-Rumbling

by Kalcifer



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, During Canon, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29115207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalcifer/pseuds/Kalcifer
Summary: Sokrates doesn't expect to be trusted. Betraying people is kind of what they're here for, after all. They especially don't expect to find a friend. Fortunately, Natalya's never been too big on agency loyalties.
Relationships: Sokrates Nikon Artemisios & Natalya Greaves
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	This Tired Old Machine is A-Rumbling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deadmetal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadmetal/gifts).



> Written for @ironchoirs on twitter for Secret Samol! I love Sokrates so thank you for this excuse to write about them.

Sokrates figured the room had been designed to look like an ordinary conference room. Maybe it was even used as one, though if it was they hoped it wasn’t kept quite so thoroughly locked. Meetings made you feel plenty trapped without knowing it was literally true.

Still, they appreciated the effort, if only in an abstract sense. They might be treated like a prisoner, but there were still some concessions towards their comfort. That had to be a good sign.

They’d already been through a round of polite interrogation, businesspeople in suits alternately glowering at the pilots by their side and glaring at Sokrates. Sokrates was well aware of how much squabbling went into even trivial decisions when politics was involved, so they assumed it would be a while before they heard from anyone.

That made it all the more surprising when the doors slid open less than an hour after the suits (flight and otherwise) had left. This time, the only one to come in was a woman. That they trusted her to be alone with Sokrates before reaching their conclusion suggested that either she was expendable or she was confident she could take them out first. Her clothes were drab and unassuming, but she moved like she was aware of exactly where her body was at all times, so Sokrates wasn’t going to make any assumptions.

She sat across the table from them and offered her hand. “Hi, I’m Natalya. You could probably guess, but I have some questions for you.”

Sokrates shook her hand with a smile they hoped was more wry than bitter. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Natalya paused. “I don’t actually know that much about Apostolosian culture. Do you have a title, or…?”

“Sokrates is fine.” They shrugged. “I’m pretty sure betraying your entire family gets your royalty card revoked anyway.”

“I can see that, yeah.” She offered an apologetic smile. “I swear I’m not here to make you talk about your family, though. I just want to hear more about that weapon you said you were working on.”

Sokrates had been afraid of that. “I mean, I couldn’t exactly bring my notes with me, so I can’t tell you that much about it.”

“That’s okay. I’m most interested in the basic idea behind it, so I can find a way to counter it.” She leaned across the table. “There’s no team of scientists waiting to reverse engineer it or anything. I’m just asking you, person to person.”

They rolled their eyes. Like the room wasn’t being recorded from 12 different angles at all times anyway.

They didn’t want to know what would happen to them if they were declared uncooperative, though, so they pretty much had to do it. They’d just keep it as vague as they could get away with and hope that the comments about their brilliance and creativity hadn’t been empty flattery.

They were so intent on choosing their words, they almost missed the way Natalya’s shoulders lost some of their tension as Sokrates continued their explanation. What, was their weapon of mass destruction not horrible enough for her? Rude.

“Okay,” she said once their explanation had wrapped up. “That should be everything I need to know. Thank you.”

Sokrates blinked. They’d been sure there’d be another round or two of questions. Maybe the alliance was closer to this technology than Apostolos had thought. Wouldn’t it be just their luck if they’d defected just in time to watch the other side do exactly what they were trying to prevent. “Sure,” they said, suddenly exhausted.

“One last thing,” Natalya said. “Thank you for trusting me like this. I know I can’t exactly prove that I’m not a spy, but I hope this is a start, at least.” She reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a carefully folded sheet of paper, which she slid across the table.

Sokrates unfolded it cautiously, though that caution fled their mind the moment they saw the paper’s contents. It was the schematic to one of the alliance’s ships. Cramped handwriting noted several of its structural weaknesses, often with comments comparing them to more standard models. They stared at Natalya, eyes wide.

She gave a small shrug, looking self-conscious but firm. “I already hacked the cameras in here so no one will know you have this. If you think I’m trying to recreate your weapon, you can report me for treason. That ought to convince them that you’re trustworthy.”

Sokrates winced at the words “your weapon”, but they had to admit that she’d thought this through. She’d leaked just enough information to test them without putting the mission in serious danger. For all they knew, the plans weren’t even real.

Still, it was a nice gesture, and they’d already accepted that they were going to be under suspicion basically their whole life. At least this test would be easy to pass.

They looked at the plans again, picking out a weak point at random. “Why didn’t you widen the nose to let it vent more heat? It’s not like you need to worry about aerodynamics, and you could probably pack in more shielding, too.”

Natalya lit up. “But then we’d have to upgrade the engines to get enough acceleration, and we’re already pushing our fuel budget.”

“There’s got to be a way to cut down on weight somewhere in here.” Sokrates bent over the plans. It had been weeks since they’d been able to do this kind of problem-solving, and even longer since they’d done it without a gnawing sense of guilt. It was nice for things to be straightforward for once.

By the time Natalya left, Sokrates was pretty confident the plans were real and also hers, given how passionately she’d defended the design. They’d also decided that they liked her. There was still a real chance that she was trying to get close so she could keep an eye on them, but she was more interesting than anyone who’d tried it back home, so they’d take it.

They leaned back in their chair and waited for someone else to decide they were worthy of acknowledgement.

* * *

Somehow, their stitched-together fleet had eked out another victory, thanks in no small part to the incredible heroic piloting duo who could do no wrong. Truly, it was a miracle, a sign of the importance of their cause or whatever.

Sokrates was exhausted. They flopped into a chair in a way that may have been a bit performative but also perfectly demonstrated their emotional state.

It hadn’t been aimed at anyone in particular, so they jumped when someone in the doorway snorted, thensagged back into their seat once they registered who it was. “Sure, laugh at your source of top secret information that will win you the war, that’s a good idea. No one will care if you drive me away with your scorn.”

“That doesn’t really work when you’ve already told us everything you know about the weapon,” Natalya pointed out. “And the rest of your information is probably out of date anyway.”

“That’s what you think.” Sokrates steepled their fingers in a parody of villainy. “You still don’t know anything about the coven of warlocks gathering on Apostolos to curse our - their enemies.”

“That’s okay, we’ve already assigned our wizards to creating a shield around the entire planet.” She frowned. “Wait, that’s literally a Divine, isn’t it.”

“Probably. Everything else seems to be.” They rolled their eyes. “Seriously, what’s with those things? Sure, they’re big and impressive, but that doesn’t make them gods. You can just, like, build more of them, right?”

“You would think, but there’s got to be something weird going on with them. Like, the fact that there are so many different ones but they can all still teleport to each other? How does that work?” Natalya’s eyes gleamed with scientific curiosity. Frankly, Sokrates thought it was unfair that she could look that sinister without even trying.

“Not to mention that their pilots all suck. I mean, I don’t think you can blame Ibex on anyone but his own shitty self, but Addax seems like a perfectly ordinary dude who just happens to be terrible.” Sokrates leaned back in their chair. “I don’t know. It’s cool that they’re not just war machines, but they’re still giant weapons, and I don’t trust them.”

“I don’t think we have to,” Natalya said. “This is just an alliance. As soon as the war is over, we can go our separate ways and never have to worry about creepy fake gods again.”

“I can’t wait,” Sokrates said fervently. “That might even be better than getting to sleep on a planet again.”

“Yeah, but I miss having more than five square feet of space for myself,” Natalya agreed. “I don’t even care about natural light or fresh air or anything anymore. I just want to be able to walk from one place to another without running into ten different people.”

“And do you remember quiet? ‘Cause I don’t think I do anymore. It’s just the sound of engines and someone yelling in the other room.” They considered this. “The sound of rain would be good too, actually. It basically feels like quiet anyway, and I haven’t heard it in forever.”

“War is hell,” Natalya said, not quite managing to make it light-hearted. She sighed. “Great, now I’m depressed. We were supposed to be celebrating.”

“Yay fighting,” said Sokrates, unenthusiastically. “Go team.”

“I feel so much better now.” Natalya’s deadpan was also unfairly good. Sokrates really needed to take lessons from her.

“All my rhetoric classes really paid off.” Sokrates stood up. “Now come on, let’s find something to do that isn’t sitting around and moping. We’ve got the whole rest of our lives for that.”

* * *

“Did you spend all our money on farm animals again?” Natalya asked, amused.

“Not all of it,” Sokrates said. “I also got a new hat.”

“Oh, well, that’s completely different.” Natalya looked back at her side of the screen, where she could no longer afford to purchase the materials for a better sprinkler. “Fashion is definitely more important than saving our time and energy for things like fighting monsters.”

“I’m glad you understand,” Sokrates said. “Besides, you should be grateful for the extra eggs. I don’t think you’re giving them to everyone in town every single day.”

“Of course not, you can’t give people gifts every day.” Natalya shook her head. “I guess I’ll just water all our crops by hand, and then go straight to bed because I won’t be able to do anything else today. Who needs progress?”

“It’s a farming simulator, the crops are the whole point,” Sokrates said, ignoring the crops in favor of petting every animal on the farm.

They went about their virtual chores in silence for a few minutes before Sokrates said, “Okay, not that I’m complaining, but I feel like I have to ask, for liability reasons or whatever. Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to keep hanging out on my ship? I mean, I’m not exactly the most popular fish in the sea at the moment.”

“That one was a stretch and you know it.” Natalya shrugged. “Does it really matter at this point? We’re almost done with this awful mission. I’m not about to give up one of my only friends around here just to satisfy a bunch of assholes I’ll never have to deal with agian.”

“I mean, that’s touching and all,” Sokrates said, failing to hide how pleased they were. “But there are definitely going to be rumors. And no matter what happens, I don’t think people will be rushing to include me in the memorials. I signed up to be the scapegoat; you don’t have to.”

“Trust me, I’m not nearly that selfless.” Natalya was quiet for long enough that Sokrates had just made up their mind to lighten the mood with a joke when she continued, “I’ve always had my own agenda. I’m glad I can help stop the war, but that’s not why I’m here. And in the end, I was never going to be a war hero.”

Sokrates slammed their hands on their knees, knocking over their controller in the process. “I knew it!”

Natalya leaned away from them but didn’t pause in her planting. “Knew what?”

“I knew there was something up with you. There’s no way they’d let some random engineer in to talk to me, especially one who had access to that level of blueprints.” Sokrates paused the game to look at her intently. “So the only question is: are you some sort of top secret assassin? Are you here to make sure no one thinks of double-crossing their allies? How many guns do you have access to right now?”

Natalya rolled her eyes. “I’m not that kind of spy, and even if I were, I’m pretty sure waiting this long means there are already plans about how to take me out. I know I’d have made them.”

“Wow, yeah, you’re doing a great job of convincing me you’re not secretly terrifying,” Sokrates said. “I can definitely see how you got a job lying to people all day.”

“It’s not that much lying, honestly.” Natalya blinked. “And yes, I heard how that sounded.”

Sokrates shrugged. “I mean, I’m not that concerned about it, you know? Like you said, you’re still here to help with the main mission, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t some evil scheme that involves playing farming games for a week. Unless you hid some kind of brainwashing signal in the game, I guess.”

Natalya smiled wryly. “I can promise you I’ve never put a brainwashing signal into anything.”

“You see? We’re fine.” Sokrates unpaused the game.

Natalya’s character didn’t move. “Thank you,” Natalya said.

“Trust me, I’m really not in a position to judge other people’s loyalties right now.”

“You always make me feel so special,” Natalya said, equally bad at hiding the traces of genuine emotion in her voice.

Sokrates was a great friend, though, so they ignored it to ask for name suggestions for their next sheep. That was way more important anyway.

* * *

The monster that drove their people to Apostolos had mostly faded into myth, but when Sokrates got Natalya’s message, they knew exactly what it meant.

Rigor. The first Divine. The machine entire systems couldn’t fight.

It was hard to know which was worse: the endless litany of its name, or the redacted spaces between them. Natalya was an engineer and a spy; she believed in the power of knowledge above all other things. If Rigor could take that from her, she didn’t stand a chance.

Sokrates’ stomach twisted as they thought about their long-ago assessment of Divines and their pilots. This was going to be another piece of evidence for the list. Another person ruined by the overwhelming presence of a Divine.

They wished, selfishly, that they could fly to her side. Surely they’d done enough for grandiose causes. Surely they’d earned the chance to worry about a single person. They might even succeed for once.

But selfishness wouldn’t help anyone on Glimmer, or Counterweight, or Apostolos itself. Selfishness probably wouldn’t even be enough to help Sokrates.

They’d spent too long working to get to this point, to be trusted with the most powerful weapon on the planet. They couldn’t back out now.

They took a deep breath and welcomed the descendant of the thing that destroyed Natalya into their nervous system.


End file.
